Thais And Online Purchases

[girlx]

I have a couple of business ideas (which are in very early stages) for websites, connecting buyers of a service to sellers of that service within Thailand. There would be a Thai version of the site and an English version, and both sides would be charged according to the nature of their participation as buyers or sellers. However I know absolutely nothing about the habits of Thai people as far as online purchases are concerned. Can anyone enlighten me? ((I am considering setting up another company doing User Experience design and testing here anyway, so learning about local habits on the internet is something I need to start doing either way.)) How often do (affluent or middle class) Thais go looking online for something they need, and how often do they purchase services or products from websites as opposed to going into a place of business? I know that my Bangkok Bank Visa debit card doesn't even work for online purchases- are there other banks whose cards do? Do Thais tend to use credit cards to make purchases or do they prefer to pay in cash, in person? If anyone on here has an e-commerce website that caters to Thais as well as farangs and can comment, or just knows the habits of the Thais around them well enough to say, please let me know, thanks!

[CWMcMurray]

I know a few Thai people that will purchase things on-line from Amazon or Ebay, but these are folks that have spent quite some time overseas living/studying in the US. From my understanding they are the exception rather than the rule.

I remember when I was going to university here in Thailand, this topic came up in more than a few classes. When the question was asked, "Who has ever purchased anything on-line?" The response was the same in each case. The international students all raised their hands and none of the Thai students raised theirs.

When the field was widened by asking, "Who knows somebody who has ever bought something on-line?", it received the same response.

These were students in their 3rd or 4th year in Unversity almost all from very well to do Thai families. Not sure if things are changing...

Edited November 24, 2008 by CWMcMurray

[girlx]

hmm, that is kind of what i figured... thanks for the input.

[Briggsy]

As I understand it, Thai debit cards are still blocked by their issuing banks from being used for online purchases. Please correct me if this is no longer the case.

[jackinbkk]

I think the point is in Thailand labour is very cheap. This means goods can also be made cheap.

In the west a lot of the price is from cost of man hours, overheads etc.

That is why in the west we will search online for a good deal. In Thailand you can usually

find a good price locally man hours dont impact cost so much.

Then of course Thai's can still do favours, negotiate etc.

It's the farang who have the majority of the wealth so you should target them.

[aurelius]

As I understand it, Thai debit cards are still blocked by their issuing banks from being used for online purchases. Please correct me if this is no longer the case.

Bangkok Bank's Be1st Visa Debit card works online, but there was an earlier time when some of them didn't have the CVV on the back, and they didn't work online. But the cards issued in branches today work.